Madrid bombing suspects go on hunger strike in trial protest

Thirteen prime suspects on trial for the Madrid rail bombings that killed 191 people in 2004 have gone on hunger strike in protest at what they consider to be unfounded accusations against them.

Javier Gómez Bermúdez, the presiding justice, warned the men that if they continued the strike they could be expelled from court proceedings and force-fed or hydrated if necessary. "The trial will continue in their absence," he said.

Four of the men have refused food and liquids since Thursday. Nine others joined the strike yesterday morning, according to prison officials. Defence lawyers were trying to convince the men to give up the idea. The 13 hunger strikers are among 19 suspects, most of them Moroccan, who remain in police custody for the March 11 2004 attacks.

Egyptian Rabei Osman, charged with plotting the attacks, was lying down on a bench during yesterday's hearings at the court in Madrid's Casa de Campo park. He and another hunger striker were expelled from the courtroom. Mr Osman faces charges of belonging to a terrorist organisation and conspiring to commit 191 murders and 1,824 attempted murders. Prosecutors are seeking a 38,654-year sentence.

Mr Osman and three other leading suspects - alleged organisers Abdelmajid Bouchar and Hassan el-Haski, and Youssef Belhadj, accused of planting the explosives on the trains - began the strike on Thursday with a note held up through the bullet-proof glass. "As of today, we're on hunger strike because we've been charged on the basis of pure guesswork," it read.